Herman Heller Was Near To Home

When considering the theme for this week “Near to Home” my great grandfather, Herman Heller, came to mind. I grew up in the South Wayne area of Lafayette County, Wisconsin. I also knew that Herman Heller owned a farm in the South Wayne area. But the surprise came when I discovered how very near to home that farm was.

During my preteen and teen years we lived on a farm on Hwy 176 (now County D). I attended the one room Blaisdell School and the South Wayne High School. The earliest record I have found for Herman and his family living in Lafayette County is 1916. My grandmother, Martha Heller would have been 16 at that time. She may or may not have attended the same grade school I did at that age but possibly her younger siblings did. That is a research project I plan to do.

This land ownership map from 1916 shows the Heller farm in the red square. The red “X” marks where I grew up. That is near to home!! I did not know until I gathered my information for this blog that my great grandfather and grandmother lived within a couple of miles of where I grew up.

Herman Heller with granddaughter Leona Koehn

Herman Heller was born 16 January 1866 in Pommern/Pomerania, Germany possibly in the city/area of Patclick. That is the only information I have of Herman’s German ancestry. I have not yet been able to determine who is parents were. Herman immigrated in 1894 to the United States with his wife, Emilia, and three children, Bertha, Reynold and Emma. The passenger list of the “Italia” lists their last residence as Petznick. They arrived 28 March 1894 and settled in the Warren, IL area in Jo Daviess county and Emelia died on 16 April 1894. Less than a month after arriving in this country Herman was raising three children, ages 2-6, by himself.

On 1 March 1895 Herman married my great grandmother, Matilda Bellert, in Chicago, IL. She had two children so they started their marriage with a family of 5 children. They had 7 children together (2 died, Elsie at the age of 2 and Richard as an infant). They rented their farm in Jo Daviess county in Illinois until purchasing the farm in Wayne Township in Lafayette County, WI sometime between 1900-1916. The two counties bordered each other on the Illinois-Wisconsin state line. In 1918 Matilda filed for divorce and the divorce was granted in 1919. Herman continued to live on the farm with the children while Matilda lived with a nephew in Chicago until living with my grandparents sometime before 1930.

Herman Heller died 2 April 1932 in Rush Township of Jo Daviess County, IL. He may have been living with one of his children while ill as the Illinois death index lists him as living at the residence for 1 month and 10 days. He is buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Warren, IL. No other ancestor lived so close to home.

Matilda’s Story can be read here: https://ginnysgems.wordpress.com/2015/01/15/mathilda-marie-krebs-bellert-heller-getting-a-fresh-start/

Since I wrote Matilda’s story I found this picture of her.

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1. Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918, database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 4 March 2015), Land Ownership record for Herman Heller, Wayne Township, Wisconsin, Land Ownership Map, 1916, Collection Number: G&M_68; Roll Number: 68
2. Ancestry.com, “Herman August Heller in the Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths Index,” abstracts, ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/cgi- bin/sse.dll?db=FSIllinoisDeath&h=1512002&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t27497458_p5068608528_kpidz0q3d5068608528z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgplz0q3dpid: accessed 3 March 2015), record for Herman Heller, 2 April 1932.
3. Manifest, Italia, 28 March 1894, List 49, for Hermann Heller (age 28), digital images, Massachusetts, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963 (http://ancestry.com: accessed 3 March 2015).
4. “Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N7XQ-79N : accessed 3 March 2015), Herman Heller and Mathilda Bellert, 01 Mar 1895; citing Chicago, Cook, Illinois, , Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,030,249.
5. Herman Heller with granddaughter, Leona Koehn photograph, Monroe, Wisconsin, ca 1920-1925; digital image 4 March 2015, privately held by Ginny Gerber, for private use only, Monroe, Wisconsin], June 2008.
6. Matilda Heller photograph, Monroe, Wisconsin, ca 1940; digital image 4 March 2015, privately held by Ginny Gerber, for private use only, Monroe, Wisconsin], June 2008. Photo is from a Christmas card.

Mathilda Marie Krebs (?) Bellert Heller – Getting a Fresh Start

Mathilda was born in Brandenburg, Germany in 1862. The only clue to her maiden name is the 1920 census in which she was living with her nephew, William Krebs, in Chicago.

At the time of her immigration to the United States she was married with two children and pregnant with a third child. I have found no record of her husband and assume that at this time he is dead and that is her reason for immigration. Her brother is living in the Chicago area in Whiting, Indiana. It takes a woman of courage to travel across the ocean with children and expecting a baby leaving everything she knows behind for a fresh start.

Port of Breman ca 1890

She departed from the port of Breman (Germany) on August 17, 1893 on the ship Dresden with her daughters, 5 year old Johanna and 9 month old Auguste. The Baltimore Passenger List (Passenger Manifest of the Breman) list her last residence as Nanendorf, (Transcriber’s interpretation) Germany. The spelling cannot be made out for sure on the original list and could possibly be Neuendorf.

I cannot imagine what she endured those 14 days crossing the ocean. Conditions in steerage were crowded, dismally dark, unsanitary and foul smelling. Often the dining facilities were either shelves or benches along the sides or standing in the passages of the sleeping compartments. The air was foul with unattended vomit of the sea sick, the odors of unclean bodies, the reek of food and the stench of nearby toilet rooms. How would you care for a 9 month old and a 5 year old in these conditions?

SS Dresden

They arrived in New York on August 30, 1893 and departed from the ship in Baltimore in September. Her brother had paid for her passage and purchased her tickets to South Chicago. She arrived with $7 for a fresh start in a strange new country.

This is the only record for her daughter, Auguste. Her name never appears on any census records so I’m assuming she died before the 1900 census. Minnie Emma was born in December of 1893 in Indiana. On March 1, 1895 she married Herman Heller who had also emigrated from Germany. They were married in Cook County, Illinois. Herman’s wife, Emilia Feldt Heller, had died the previous year on April 16, 1894. Herman had three children: Bertha, Reynold and Emma. From the 1900 census and forward Mathilda’s children, Johanna (Hanna) and Minnie were listed with the Heller surname.

The merged family settled in the Warren, Illinois area (Jo Daviess County) on a farm. A daughter, Elsie was born on April 26, 1896 and she died on July 4, 1898. A son, Leonard, was born June 1, 1898 and a daughter, Martha, was born on March 23, 1900. Martha is my grandmother. A son, Richard, was born June 18, 1901 and he died on October 3, 1901. Both Elsie and Richard are buried at the Zion Cemetery in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, along with Herman’s first wife, Emilia. A son, Frank, was born on September 13, 1902; daughters, Edith (Ida) in 1905 and Agnes in 1906. Sometime after 1910 and before 1918 they moved to a farm in Lafayette County, Wisconsin.

But life must have been hard for Mathilda. In 1918 she filed for divorce from Herman. The children remained with Herman. In 1920 Mathilda was living with her nephew William Krebs in Chicago. Sometime before 1930 she moved in with her daughter, Martha and husband, Arthur (my grandparents). On both the 1930 and 1940 census she is listed as living with them so I am assuming she remained with them until her death in 1944. Mathilda Heller is buried at the Elmwood Cemetery in Warren, Illinois of Jo Daviess County.